In September 2025, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said 14 associations were cleared for party registration, but the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) was not on the list.

 

INEC said it received letters of intent from 110 associations seeking registration in June last year. By September 11, 2025, the list increased to 171, but 157 associations failed to meet the required criteria.

 

The 14 associations that qualified were the African Transformation Party (ATP), All Democratic Alliance (ADA), Advance Nigeria Congress (ANC), Abundance Social Party (ASP), African Alliance Party (AAP), Citizens Democratic Alliance (CDA), and the Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA).

 

Others are Grassroots Initiative Party (GRIP), Green Future Party (GFP), Liberation People’s Party (LPP), National Democratic Party (NDP), National Reform Party (NRP), Patriotic Peoples Alliance (PPA), and Peoples Freedom Party (PFP).

 

The commission said it assessed each application based on compliance with section 222 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), sections 79 (1, 2 and 4) of the Electoral Act 2022, and clauses 2 (i and ii) of INEC’s 2022 regulations and guidelines for political parties.

 

On October 30, the commission said eight of the 14 pre-qualified associations successfully uploaded all required information and documentation for the next stage of registration. Those that made the cut were All Democratic Alliance (ADA), Citizens Democratic Alliance (CDA), Abundance Social Party (ASP), African Alliance Party (AAP), Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA), Green Future Party (GFP), National Democratic Party (NDP), and Peoples Freedom Party (PFP).

 

On February 5, 2026, Joash Amupitan, INEC chairman, said that “only two” out of the eight were “qualified for the final assessment and verification of due compliance with the constitution and the Electoral Act.”

 

Speaking at the commission’s first regular consultative meeting with political parties in Abuja, Amupitan said only the DLA met all legal requirements after the final review and was registered by the commission.

 

However, the NDC was later registered by the commission, despite not being part of the pre-qualified associations. According to Amupitan, the move followed a subsisting court order.

 

“The Federal High Court sitting in Lokoja, Kogi state, in suit No. FHC/LKJ/CS/49/2025 between Barr Takori Mohammed Sanni & Ors v. INEC, ordered the commission to register Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) as a political party,” he said. “The commission has decided to comply with the order, and it is being registered as a political party. Certificate of registration will be handed over to the two new political parties in due course.”

 

However, Umar Ardo, a chieftain of ADA, one of the associations that made the final list of eight, alleged that INEC deviated from its procedures in the registration of NDC. Speaking during an interview on Trust TV in April, Ardo claimed that NDC was never part of the 2025 screening process, asking INEC to explain why the party was registered through a court order when it did not apply for official registration.

 

“NDC did not apply or participate in the registration process. The party was nowhere,” he said. “So, how can it go to obtain a court order? What documents did it present before the Lokoja Federal High Court to secure that order?

 

“I was part of the process from the beginning. I know those who participated. I know the 14 associations that were initially listed. Out of the 14, eight made it to the INEC portal. But NDC was not among them. I do not know how it happened.”

 

However, Ikenna Enekweizu, NDC national secretary, pushed back, noting that the party’s registration process dates back to 2017, when it first applied alongside several other associations seeking recognition as political parties. Enekweizu said INEC declined the application at the time, citing concerns over the similarity of its logo to that of another political party.

 

Seriake Dickson, senator representing Bayelsa west, who joined the party from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in March, corroborated Enekweizu’s assertion in a post made on his X page in April. The two-term former governor of Bayelsa described Ardo’s claim as “misguided” and sponsored propaganda, saying NDC was part of the 171 associations that applied for INEC registrations last year.

 

“The truth about NDC is in the public domain: The application commenced in 2017, when Dr. Ardo wasn’t even dreaming of registering a political party. The process stalled because INEC, under Dr. Mahmood Yakubu, halted the registration of political parties,” he wrote.

 

“However, last year when INEC lifted the embargo on registration of political parties, we revived our application and were subsequently listed alongside the 171 political associations.”

 

He said the party waited to be invited by INEC to participate in the next stages of the registration process, only to receive a letter from the commission stating that its application was declined because its proposed logo, which is the two-finger sign, was similar to that of the APC broom.

 

“This was shocking to us, and we wrote back to INEC to restate that the logos were in no way similar. INEC persisted and even refused us the opportunity to change the logo, upon our offer to do so,” Dickson said.

 

“We wrote to INEC notifying them of our intention to sue, and we went to court over this unlawful exclusion, and upon this, the court enforced our rights to freedom of association, deemed us registered and directed INEC to register us, which they have implemented.”

 

He added that INEC did not appeal the judgement, noting that since the period of appeal had elapsed, “no one, except INEC, has the locus standi to appeal the judgement. The judgement has been enforced by INEC, and there’s nothing to appeal anymore.”

 

Meanwhile, on February 16, a federal high court in Abuja also ordered INEC to register the NDP, one of the eight associations that successfully uploaded its records on the commission’s website. The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2796/2025, was filed by Ada Okwori, national chairman of the NDP, and three others.

 

Delivering the judgement, Mohammed Umar, the trial judge, held that the plaintiffs had met all constitutional and statutory requirements for registration under sections 222–224 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), sections 75 and 79 of the Electoral Act 2022, and INEC’s 2022 regulations and guidelines.

 

The judge added that, having satisfied the legal requirements, the electoral body is duty-bound to register the NDP as a political party.

 

A check of the commission’s website on Sunday showed that both the NDP and NDC are listed among registered political parties, with their details, including logos and names of national executives, marked as products of court orders.

 

The NDC received a boost on Sunday after Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), and Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano, defected from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to join the party.